Please: No More Abstinence-only Education!

Crossposted at FeministLookingGlass.com

When I was 17 and in my senior year, my Texas high school held a mandatory assembly featuring some speaker who was an Abstinence Life Coach. The man was 35, a proud virgin, and pretty good at fear-mongering. He showed graphic STD slideshows, made a lot of awkward jokes, and waxed poetic about ‘true love.’ He also told a lot of tales about his ‘friends’ who died after having sex, and made us write “oaths” to remain virgins, which he then collected. He wanted everyone to remain “pure” until marriage. I can remember sitting in between two of my friends who were gay, and one of them wrote the following across his oath:  ”I can’t get married, you prick.”

Its true, he couldn’t– and still can’t in most states. And yes, the exclusion of non-heteronormative relationships clearly reflected privilege and ignorance– but then again,  if an honest discussion about heterosexual sex wasn’t going to happen, an honest discussion about different sexualities was definitely out of the question.

The entire production may have been ridiculous, but it was pretty much the extent of my sex education. I never put a condom on a banana, talked about The Pill, or even watched that infamous Miracle of Life movie. Luckily for everyone in my town, we were affluent, educated in other ways, and had no shortage of access to information about sex if we needed it. I knew that the same could not necessarily be said for other towns, other schools, or other groups of kids, trying to navigate being teenagers in a world of adults who are too nervous to be honest with them. Suffice it to say that I have a personal grudge against abstinence-only education.

Which brings me to why I’m in a good mood right now. The House has just voted to cut out $99 Million of investment in abstinence-only education .

Abstinence-only education is a dangerous campaign of misinformation that was born out of fear, bashfulness, and religious teachings. None of these things deserves a place in schools, especially not over the health of kids. Abstinence-only education purposely avoids facts about a natural human instinct, facts that can save lives or futures. How many studies do we have to go through to be convinced that abstinence education does not work ?

Though I don’t agree with their position, if those who truly are pro-life really wanted to get serious about reducing abortions, they’d back comprehensive sex education. This would include talking about abstinence and letting teens choose that lifestyle if they want, because there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with it. But there’s also nothing wrong with not choosing abstinence. And besides, teenagers become adults, and adults have sex. And whenever they do, they’ll be equipped with the knowledge and tools to make healthy decisions. They’ll be using condoms to protect themselves, not Mountain Dew or bleach.